Hi, From: Osamu Aoki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Japanese name use single space between the last name and the first name? Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 16:15:01 -0800
> I may be the one to be blamed to cause this. > > When I saw my name in document maintainer section in English with first > and my last name in one piece, I felt strange. I posted here and since > no one replied, I fixed that page. Ok. I posted the mail because the comment with cvs commit may mislead non-Japanese people who don't know Japanese custom. (The comment can read that Japanese name uses spaces everywhere in every contexts; which is not true. I'd like Chinese translation of DWN not to use spaces.) I think a space may be used for Japanese name in English sentences. Also, I added spaces even for Japanese translations if the name is written independently in "()". However, I didn't add spaces when the names appear in ordinary sentences because such a expression is apparently strange. > Very valid question. Most name references in the modern newspapers are > spaceless and all in Japanese characters (I just checked.) I have been > spelling my names with separated format since most of the document I sign > are government/bank document where they have box for each section. Also > my name tag in my elementary school days tends to separate them. Right. Your explanation is consistent with mine, and I expect non-Japanese members of this list will trust us. The keypoint seems whether the name appears independently (i.e., book author, sign on government/bank documents, name tags, and so on) or in ordinary sentences. > At any rate, mixed character group document is unconventional and I do > not know what is right. My intent of adding space in the English was to > clarify splits between first and last name. I understand your intent. However, I am afraid that many people will misunderstand that "Osamu" is "青木" and "Aoki" is "修", while the truth is opposite. > I do not care which way to write, IMHO. But it has to be consistent. Ok. Since it is I who modify English version of DWN for Japanese names (by a semi-automatic small Perl script), I can change the policy and the script hereafter. > Also, getting opinion of Chinese person's preference in English context > may be interesting. I see most chinese names in Japanese web pages do > not use a space between last and first name in Japanese. I am also interested. Also, I can add items for my script for Chinese, Korean, Russian, Greek, Thai, and any other non-Latin-alphabet people. Suggestions are welcome. --- Tomohiro KUBOTA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.debian.or.jp/~kubota/